MEENA IYER Times News Network (BOMBAY TIMES; October 5, 2009)

Bipasha Basu is upset. The Bengali beauty has been done out of her role as Abhishek Bachchan’s wife Mandodari in Mani Ratnam’s Raavan. This, apparently, after she had dress fittings, attended rehearsals, and was allotted 20 days of work in the film of which 12 were to be used exclusively for an exotic item number.

While Bips, herself, is silent on what led to her ouster from this Abhishek-Aishwarya Bachchan starrer, an insider alleged that her track in the story was proving to be a bit too strong and disrupting the length of the film. Another take has it that she was also proving to be a threat to some of the other actresses in the film like Ash and Priya Mani.

A press release from Mani’s spokesperson explains that the filmmaker did not want to do any injustice to Bips’s role, but, at a later date, he will ensure that they work together. To this, Bips responded, “I am sad… but it’s better than having my role chopped or totally edited… when lot of effort had gone to work out the role for this guest character.” Shooting for the film continues at Malshej Ghat. But there’s no confirmation if Bips will be replaced or whether Mandodori’s role has been obliterated out of Raavan for good.

Meanwhile, her sadness extends to her private life as well. The Bengali bombshell continues living out of a suitcase for the sixth month now. Her newly-renovated duplex in Santacruz has a water-proofing problem. “Ten different experts were called to identify the cause,’’ she grumbled, “and after weeks of study, one of them has nailed it. The roof will take another week to be fixed.’’

On the bright side, the actress has her Diwali entertainer All The Best coming up. She is super-confident about the film, “There are certain films that work across segments and All The Best, a situational comedy, is one such film.’’ There’s also talk of Boney Kapoor’s No Entry-II being made. “Then it should have the original star cast of Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Lara Dutta and me because that is the only way it will recreate the same box office magic,’’ said Bipasha, lighting up like a Diwali diya at the thought of this.